The year so far...

It's been about 4 weeks since my last post, but not for lack of interesting life events. First off, Elliette started walking! She's been able to for quite some time...she has been standing up on her own for about 2 months, but lacked the self confidence to actually take a step. She still prefers to crawl, or "walk" on her knees since she gets to where she is going much faster. Here is a video of her practicing.

Winter has been kicking our asses, though. CT has been quite cold, and snowing on and off every few weeks...enough that all the trails around here are pretty icy and snowed over. I still manage to sneak out once in a while, when I can! But for the most part cold weather makes me want to hibernate.

 

Don't let the "serious" face fool you, I really was enjoying myself! The pictures I took of myself smiling just looked silly. I found a nice spot to do an overnight in the spring on the Quinipiac Trail in Bethany (I think it was Bethany), and there was a trail log in a wood box nailed to a tree. I had a nice sit n' read, reading all the entries in the log, some years old, and leaving my own before I left. It was a nice, "warm" 35F that day, but by the time I started back I noticed there was only about an hour of sunlight left, and it had taken me an hour and a half to hike in over icy terrain. That was the closest I've come to running in the past month.

In running news, I very regretfully had to drop out of the Ragnar Relay race. I had been looking forward to running and training with a team, but the brokeness of my foot won't let me run. I made it up to 15-20 miles per week after the ortho gave me the ok to run again, but after a few weeks of that I came painfully close to have to go back to using my cane. So no more running. For now. I still try to get some cardio in on the treadmill every day, or every other day depending on how my foot feels. I limit myself to 1/4 mile "brisk" walks followed by resistance work, 2-3 sets of 2-3 different exercises (usually arms, legs, chest, repeat) with little to no break between. On a good day, I'll do 6-8 repeats of that workout. That has been happening 3-4 times a week. It makes for a productive way to spend 2 hours while Elliette naps during the day. Now if only I could kick that nasty ice cream addiction...

I've been making good use of my New Years resolutions, and I think I've been keeping up with them quite well. I decided to take it a step further and each month give up (for that month) one thing I consider to be a crutch. Last month it was material purchases, this month its no alcohol. I don't buy a lot of shit, since I don't "work" more than 3 times a month, but I thought it would be a cool experiment and a good way to practice non-attachment. I only broke it once, when I went to Boston to see Humanwine and bought a cd. I felt fine with that since I was helping support underground music, and I like the ideals they as a band embody.

 

Heres a video I took durring the show.

Speaking of music, I've been playing with a few friends once or twice a week. I've had a handful of songs/ideas bouncing around my head for quite some time, and it feels really good to share them with other musicians. We've already worked out 4 original songs in 5(?) practices, so now we're just keeping an eye open for possible additions.

Other trivial banalities:
Koletrane joined the chorus at school. I drop him off before school (8:15AM) on Wednesdays, but the last two have been canceled due to snow. He claims he joined to impess a girl. :)

Nancy has been applied for medical rep jobs all over the country, mostly (well, only) in "warm" states. California, Hawaii, New Mexico, and Arizona. Fuck snow.

We've been having some fun family jam sessions. We play along to songs we all like as they play on the stereo, since its easier  for the young ones to keep the beat that way. The kids do drums, rattles, harmonica, and kazoo while Nancy sings and helps them, and I do guitar. "Oh Valencia" by the Decemberists is a favorite of ours to do.

Nancy and I had some really awesome ideas for where we want to be in life by the time Elliette is done with grade school, so 12 years. But that will probably be a long post, so I'll get to that some other time.